Tarik was a Grade 4 student at Elementary School.

His school was in Menz district in the province of North Shoa, Ethiopia.

Tarik had a dog called Buchie. Where Buchie was, Tarik was there too.

When Tarik's mom gave Tarik food, he shared it with Buchie.

Tarik and Bedilu were in the same class. They were shepherds when they were not at school.

One Saturday morning, Tarik and Bedilu were taking their flock to the common grazing land.

They also carried their school books to study for examinations.

Bedilu said, "Let's play kisara for few minutes to relax our minds." Tarik replied, "No, we should start studying!"

"We will study soon. Please play!" Bedilu begged. In the end, the boys played kisara.

(Kisara is a game where players take turns throwing flat stones or coins into a small hole, standing about a meter away.)

Without noticing, they played the game for about two hours.

When they looked, they couldn't see their sheep anywhere. They ran everywhere searching for the sheep.

From a distance, they saw a wolf chasing their sheep!

Then they saw that the wolf had killed Tarik's sheep. He began crying. He knew that his father would punish him severely.

When Bedilu took his sheep home, Tarik didn't go home. He decided to spend the night in the big tree not far from his house.

He slept on a low branch and Buchie slept below him on the ground.

At midnight, Tarik was woken by a loud scream of hyenas.

He got such a fright that he fell off the branch, down to the ground.

Tarik heard sounds of animals near him but it was too dark to see them.

He began sweating thinking that it must be hyenas.

Suddenly, lightning flashed light across the sky. Tarik was able to see around him.

There was Buchie standing guard and protecting him from two snarling hyenas.

Buchie saved Tarik, what a friend he was indeed! The boy scrambled back up into the tree, taking Buchie with him.

Together they would wait for morning and then go home to face Tarik's father.